Melo was owed $1.3 million this season fully guaranteed, part of his rookie contract. If no team picks ‘Melo up off waivers Memphis will have to eat that salary (and it still counts against their salary cap).

The fact that Memphis is willing to do that rather than let go of Josh Akognon or Willie Reed (guys without fully guaranteed contracts who make less money) speaks to what Memphis thought of Melo. There have been questions about his maturity and his desire to work at his game since he entered the league.

That said, ‘Melo is a 7’0” shot blocking big who could develop into a good NBA defender — last season he was named to the D-League All-Defensive First Team and D-League All-Rookie First Team — so a team may well claim him off waivers. If not, he will land a spot on a minimum contract.

Memphis didn’t really need Melo at center: They start Marc Gasol and now back him up with Kosta Koufos, plus Jon Leuer is the third center on the roster.

Akognon with the Grizzlies is interesting — they need outside shooting (they are chasing Mike Miller right now but made no other significant changes to the roster) and that’s what Akognon brings. The Cal State Fullerton star averaged 17.4 points a game from Summer League and shot 39.1 percent from three. He had some up and down games from deep (1-7 against the Warriors, 4-7 against the Clippers) but he turned a few heads.

Memphis has 13 guaranteed roster spots filled right now (and remember they are chasing Miller hard). We’ll see if there is room for him.

The Clark news comes via Jeff Zillgitt of the USA Today.

Summer League star Ian Clark signs a two-year deal with the Utah Jazz, his agent Bill Duffy tells USA TODAY Sports. Team option on year two.

Clark averaged 12.3 points a game for Golden State during Summer League, capped off by a monster 33 points on 12-of-19 shooting night in the championship game vs. Phoenix.

While the Jazz are a young team not expected to be very good next season I’m not sure how many minutes there would really be in their backcourt for him right now. But they are bringing him to camp at least.